My Foolishness

My Foolishness

If anyone wants to have a little fun, I’m an easy target.    No kidding.    My four sons know that.    I’ll fall for most anything they say,  so they often get a chuckle out of my gullibility with them.

It’s all because I want to believe them.

Now, that can be a problem.    Every day in this life we have to be able to see and understand what is good or evil,  right or wrong,  honest or dishonest,  pure or filthy.    We have to discern whether others are making a fool of us or whether what is presented is truthful in God’s eyes.

From what we are bombarded with in the media,  it’s obvious that many regard the Christian faith as a bunch of foolishness.    Some of that opinion might have come from seeing Christians act in very unchristian ways.    Some of that opinion stems from plain ol’ unbelief and hatefulness.    It’s sad that the name of Christ is so dishonored by people who claim to be followers of Christ.    Such dishonor fools a lot of others into an unbelief that eventually damns them eternally.    It also damns those perpetuating those untruths — lies, to be more blunt.

Jude 4 shows that this sort of stuff has been happening since the beginning.    Jude says,  “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation,  ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

So, Jude is warning us that even when we think we’re listening to a Christian, we had better be wary enough to check out everything they say with God’s word in the Bible.    If we see any sort of variance,  we had better be wise enough to avoid that person.    It’s not worth risking our eternal life on.    Isn’t eternal life in heaven our aim and hope?

God’s word is plain and consistent.    It will never fool us.    So, we don’t trust people;  but, we do trust God’s word that has been proven over thousands of years.

St. Paul gets into the nitty-gritty of being considered a fool for his faith in the saving blood of Jesus Christ.    You see, Paul had checked everything out with the Old Testament scriptures.    He knew exactly what he was talking about when he showed how God’s word is eternal.    Many times Paul quoted the Old Testament to prove how God’s prophesies came true in Jesus Christ.    That Old Testament often speaks of how the Savior would take away absolutely all of our sins by shedding His blood and being a sacrifice that would make us pure and holy in God’s eyes through faith.

I’ve checked out scripture back and forth between the Old and New Testaments.    I’ve noted that Jesus proved the Old Testament prophecies to the disciples on their way to Emmaus, when He said in Luke 24:25-27,  “‘O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!    Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’     And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets,  He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

I love that passage.    Jesus Himself is proving that every word in the Old Testament is true and has never changed over thousands of years of time.    Today we have archeological findings of the very scrolls Jesus referred to.    They all match up.

That is why 1 Peter 1:24-25 can quote Isaiah 40:8 in showing that,  “The grass withers, and the flower falls off,  but the word of the LORD abides forever.”    Jesus’ whole life proves that the word of the LORD will never change.

The preaching of certain men try to change it.    But, the actual word of God abides forever.    That is what we are to look to.    Go to the source.    Don’t let the deceitfulness of men mislead you.    Your life depends on your going to the source.

That is why I don’t mind being a fool for Christ.    I go to the source every day.    The truth is available to anyone who cares enough about their salvation to check it out.

I might be a fool to some,  but I happen to know that I’m a saved child of God.    I can count on God’s love to continue leading me through this world.    Can you?

1 Corinthians 1:18-21,  “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness,  but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.    For it is written,  ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,  and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.’    Where is the wise man?    Where is the scribe?    Where is the debater of this age?    Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?    For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God,  God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

Love,   Margaret